The Netherlands celebrates King’s Day, but does Spain also have a party on King Felipe VI’s birthday?

On April 27, the whole of the Netherlands celebrates King’s Day to celebrate the birthday of King Willem-Alexander. On this day, most employees have a day off in all parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Furthermore, this day is celebrated with various festivities, including flea markets, festivals and wearing orange clothing. Traditionally, on this day, the monarch also makes a ceremonial visit to one or more municipalities in the country, which in 2024 will be Emmen. But what do people do in Spain on the birthday of Spanish King Felipe VI? Do the Spaniards also celebrate?

Since 2014, a year after Willem Alexander succeeded his mother Beatrix as King of the Netherlands on April 30, 2013, King’s Day is celebrated in the Netherlands on April 27, the birthday of Willem-Alexander who was born on April 27, 1967. Before that, Queen’s Day was always celebrated on April 30, the day Queen Juliana was born (April 30, 1909), but a date that Beatrix (born January 31, 1938) did not change to honor her mother.

April 27 is a celebration every year in the Netherlands, so we don’t have to explain that to most readers anymore. But what is it like in Spain? Is the birthday of the current King Felipe VI also a public holiday in Spain? And was King’s Day also celebrated in Spain before Felipe took over the title from his father Juan Carlos I in 2014? The answer to that is no, King’s Day is not celebrated in Spain.

Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y de Grecia or in short Felipe VI was born in Madrid on January 30, 1968 and has been King of Spain since June 19, 2014. But his birth day and therefore birthday is not celebrated by the Spaniards, in fact, many residents of Spain probably do not even know the birthday date of their king.

Even before Felipe VI, King’s Day was not celebrated in Spain Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias or in short Juan Carlos I celebrated and still celebrates his birthday on January 5. Juan Carlos was born on that date in exile in Rome in 1938, but it was never celebrated. Coincidentally, the year ‘Día de los Reyes Magos’ or Epiphany is celebrated on January 6, but that has nothing to do with Juan Carlos I.